Why Quarantines Are Important to Australians

As some of us know, recently Johnny Depp and his wife, Amber Heard, smuggled their dogs into Australia without going through customs. As an Australian, I paid attention, as this is an important issue to me. They received very strong opposition from the Australian government, with the Deputy Prime Minister (Vice President) himself threatening to have the dogs put down and incinerated. This eventually culminated with Heard admitting to smuggling and being open to the punishment, part of which was the most awkward video ever made.

To many Americans, doggycide and jail sentences may seem an overreaction to simply bringing in two dogs without permission. However, as they so kindly put it in their apology: "Australia has a unique treasure trove of plants and animals" (may I even suggest that they are the best in the world). This is due to Australia's specific geographical history,  which has allowed only specific creatures to survive. Generally, placentals would die, while monotremes and marsupials would thrive. In other places in the world placentals would be the ones who would survive. The consequence of having such unique, isolated animals and plants, is the disease rates. Australia is and has always been free of many diseases the rest of the world has gone through, such as rabies, malaria, mad cow disease, plague, and lyme.

The lack of these diseases also means that a sudden introduction of said diseases would be a disaster, with the potential to infect humans and make native species, already endangered, extinct. To prevent this, all living things must go through strict screening processes that may take 2-6 months before being allowed in. As much as I love dogs, the death of two dogs is minimal compared to the extinction of animals such as the mountain pygmy possum or the bilby (look at how cute it is).

We've seen what happens when human stupidity damages wildlife, as was the case with the extinctions of the lesser bilby in the '50's and the Tasmanian tiger in the '30's. In my opinion, Depp got off pretty easy. If he wasn't a celebrity with mass media behind him, those dogs would be dead and him and his wife would be in gaol. Plus, would you really want them to be responsible for the death of this: